Applied technologies to support teaching and learning in higher education: an exploratory evaluation of faculty and student services at Sacramento State's Student Technology Center

Abstract:

Higher education students in the United States are leaving college without the necessary skills to succeed in the 21st century's digital and social economy. Although social media technology is ubiquitous in the lives of most students, they often lack the breadth and depth of technology skill required to flourish within today's heavily digitized business and social institutions and the abundance of knowledge technology puts at our fingertips. In order to properly prepare students and address the skill gaps in question, universities need institution-level efforts that support faculty in addressing these needs and students in achieving the desired learning outcomes.
The Student Technology Center (STC) at Sacramento State is one such institution-level effort at addressing the skills gap. As a critical piece of the University's technology-skill building resources, it is important to determine whether the STC is effectively meeting its goals and producing the desired outcomes amongst faculty and students. My thesis represents the first formal attempt to evaluate the STC.
The purpose of this evaluation is to determine whether the STC is achieving its dual goals of removing technology as a barrier, in different ways, for both faculty and students. The main criteria I used for the evaluation include perceptions of technology as a barrier (faculty and students), anxiety about using technology (faculty and students), perceptions of workshop effectiveness (faculty and students), and the development of high quality products (students). I designed survey instruments to gather data from the faculty and students who participate in the STC’s technology workshops as well as a rubric to evaluate the work products students produce after participating in those technology workshops.
The evaluation produced inconclusive results regarding the STC’s impact on student and faculty perceptions of the technology-related barriers and anxieties they face. However, the knowledge gained from this initial exploratory evaluation will help the STC team to hone the evaluation design to target these variables. Additionally, the evaluation’s workshop satisfaction measurements revealed that students and faculty are highly satisfied with the workshop service and believe it helps the students produce better coursework. The evaluation also included a rubric assessment of student work in the form of posters for class assignments. This assessment revealed that students who self-select into visiting the STC for assistance, as compared to those who are required to visit with a class, better internalize and apply the technology and design information provided by the STC and produce improved work products. Overall, the evaluation provided a foundation for the STC to build upon, revealed that its customers are largely satisfied with the service, and that the STC is helping students to produce improved coursework products.

Description:

Thesis (M.P.P.A., Public Policy and Administration)--California State University, Sacramento, 2017.